Published: March 2, 2025
Chapter 7: Ripening Limit (Major Cultivation)
Ignition, preheating, refining essence, condensing pills and opening the furnace...
Soon, the small cauldron emitted a familiar medicinal fragrance.
This time, Liu Yu learned from his previous failures and deliberately waited a little longer.
But in just a few short breaths, the fragrance disappeared, replaced by a burnt smell.
Without a doubt, it was another failure!
“...”
Liu Yu’s expression was neither sad nor happy, his heart was “calm as water.”
For beginners, failure is common; every alchemist experiences this stage.
After all, failure is the mother of success.
"Alchemical Pill Refining Notes"
Liu Yu’s heart remained undisturbed; he did not continue refining but took out a small booklet to record the problems he encountered.
He carefully reflected on his shortcomings, leaving the questions he could not understand for later reference in the Scripture Vault or for consultation with an alchemist if the opportunity arose.
Fifteen minutes later, his seemingly calm mindset finally returned to normal, and he started refining again.
Ignition, preheating, condensing pills, opening the furnace...
...
Time flew by, and another half month passed.
In the thatched cottage, Liu Yu’s face looked slightly haggard, his long hair draped over his shoulders, appearing somewhat disheveled.
However, his gaze was exceptionally bright, and his pitch-black pupils were deep and distant.
During this half month, Liu Yu refined two to three furnaces of elixirs every day.
Just nine days ago, he successfully refined a furnace of Spirit Gathering Elixirs, yielding eight pills.
With a successful experience to reference, he managed to succeed approximately every four or five furnaces afterward, obtaining a total of twenty-four Spirit Gathering Elixirs.
After exhausting the spiritual herbs for the Spirit Gathering Elixir, Liu Yu began refining the "Clear Spirit Elixir."
However, the difficulty of refining this elixir was higher, requiring an additional type of spiritual herb, complicating the process significantly.
After using fifteen types of spiritual herbs, he only managed to successfully refine two furnaces, yielding fifteen Clear Spirit Elixirs.
“Not bad.”
“After a month of sleepless nights, I finally have some results.”
Looking at the five jade vials in front of him, a smile appeared on Liu Yu's haggard face.
He then recorded his insights and difficulties from these days in the "Alchemical Pill Refining Notes."
After the task was completed, he planned to find time to address the difficult points.
Once he finished his notes, Liu Yu waved his sleeve and put the jade vials containing the elixirs and the notes into his storage bag.
Generally speaking, a Spirit Gathering Elixir costs one spiritual stone each, while a Clear Spirit Elixir costs three spiritual stones each.
In total, these elixirs were worth about sixty-nine spiritual stones.
The spiritual herbs needed to refine a batch of Spirit Gathering Elixirs were valued at around three spiritual stones each, and the value of each Clear Spirit Elixir was five spiritual stones.
Calculating the spiritual herbs consumed this time, they were worth about one hundred sixty-five spiritual stones.
However, the elixirs obtained were only worth sixty-nine spiritual stones, resulting in a loss of ninety-six spiritual stones.
Just from one practice, he incurred a loss of ninety-six spiritual stones.
If he wanted to become a qualified alchemist, he would need to go through countless practices, investing thousands or even tens of thousands of spiritual stones.
Such losses were enough to cause some small cultivation forces to bleed profusely or even go bankrupt, and even larger sects and families would feel the pinch.
It is precisely because the threshold for learning alchemy is so high that alchemists are so rare.
Perhaps due to his two lifetimes of experience, Liu Yu’s spiritual consciousness was slightly stronger than that of cultivators at the same level, enabling him to perceive the changes in medicinal power during the refining process, leading to a slightly higher initial success rate than ordinary alchemy apprentices.